JVC DLA-HD2K – General Performance 2

Posted on October 1, 2013 By Art Feierman

Setup of the JVC is straightforward. Your installer will mount your projector, hook up all devices to the processor box, utilize the test patterns (a pretty full set, including pluge, color bars, focus grid, and more, they are accessible from the processor box’s remote. Do a final calibration as needed (with a calibration disk such as the Avia). Kill the lights and start enjoying as fine a theater experience as can be had (at home or in the theaters). As you can see on the image at the left, users can store up to four different user settings for instant recall. Thanks to the rather long throw zoom lens, as I hinted above, this JVC projector may very well work mounted on a shelf in the rear of the room. Proper height is still critical to a shelf mount environment. One thing your installer will have to watch out for. The JVC vents hot air out the rear, so likely cannot be placed too close to your back wall (probably at least a foot), or a supplemental fan would probably be necessary to keep air circulating). Of course, a professional installer will (should?) know exactly what to do.

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JVC DLA-HD2K - Summary, Pros, Cons

The JVC HD2K produces a phenomenal image. For your $30,000, first of all you get a true Hi-Def projector with a native resolution of 1920×1080. The competition out there right now at that price point are almost all 3 chip DLP projectors with only 1280×720 resolution. You immediately see the difference in sharpness off of your Hi-Def sources from cable, satellite, or over the air. It doesn’t stop there, either, when watching DVD’s you can see the difference there as well, although less noticeable, since the source material is lower resolution. Now if this was simply the sharpest image quality available, that would be impressive, but what really makes my heart beat fast is the color handling. The richness of the colors is superior to any other projector I have seen. The accuracy seems near impeccable. In my two attempts to calibrate, I ended up with no significant changes. (Since calibrating is done by “eye”, and there is wiggle room, when things aren’t perfect, I jotted down my settings, and then started over.) Truth is, calibrating was hardly worth the time put in, when I consider how slight the changes were. The contrast ratio, rated 2000:1 does not tell the true story. In comparing the HD2K against my reference BenQ 8700+ (claiming 2500:1 contrast) I achieved darker black levels on the JVC. This may be in part due to the JVC being pre-calibrated to the D65 standard, which would produce a lower measured contrast ratio, than measuring the projector at maximum brightness (where the “color temperature” is more like 10,000 kelvin, than 6500K). Bottom line – the black levels were excellent. There are projectors that can do better but the JVC more than makes up for any slight loss, by virtue of outstanding image quality in all other areas.